Dogs and the three musketeers!

I have two elder brothers, one 7 years older than me and the other 4 years older. Gone are the days where we three had so much fun, laughter and joy together. Such was the mischief that we did, we earned ourselves the title "The three musketeers"!. But now, we all stay at different places and I've not seen them for more than 6 months. It would a very rare event if we all three meet together at the same time. But whenever we do, we would always recollect one of the most funniest event that happened in our life.

I was eight when it happened. We were constructing a new house on our empty first floor(mottai maadi) and since it was winter, work was suspended for a month or so. And hence some stray dogs occasionally stay at the half finished house during the nights and afternoons.

One fine day, my mother asked my eldest brother to get the clothes from the terrace that were put out for drying. He insisted that my second brother also go with him since there were too much clothes to carry. My 2nd bro started to protest. He was afraid of dogs very much. But somehow my big bro convinced him and took him upstairs. I stayed down and was sitting on the compound wall watching the two.

Suddenly, I heard some barking and shooing from the top. And what followed was peak of madness! First came a black dog running down the stairs and chasing the dog was my second bro with a bundle of clothes in his hand. I was surprised. It usually was the other way around! Ten seconds later I understood why!! A brown dog (pretty huge one) now appeared out of the terrace and it was chasing my second bro. The hunter becomes the hunted!. And finally came my big brother chasing all the three:-)

I was watching all this curious intent from the top of the compound wall. The current status was like this. The first dog was almost at the end of the stairs, my second brother at midway, closely followed by the second dog and my big bro at the top. Now, my 2nd brother did the unthinkable. He jumped all the way from the middle of the stairs to the bottom. I did not know why he did that, but he was quite successful in overtaking the first dog!


The first dog was stunned for a moment by my brother's acrobatic effort. It waited after my brother settled well on the last stair and then jumped over him finishing first in the race. My 2nd brother was a bit hurt and lay there for a moment. Now, the second dog was a bit frightened as it was stuck between my two brothers. It started to get angry and that was enough to trigger the second musketeer and he started running leaving the clothes behind.

The dogs were trapped inside the compound since the gate was closed. They were running all over the place and trying to find a way out. My second brother ran for our house's main door to get in, but the dogs were making his task difficult. The brown dog saw me at the top of the compound and I guess it thought it could go out by jumping over the compound wall(4 feet) and it came right at me. I panicked and jumped inside the house rather than outside and the dog as well failed to jump over the wall! The first dog had decided by now to go back upstairs and started in that direction, but my big bro was stubborn. He was shooing it down. I had no where to run except for the house and joined my second brother in the quest! Just imagine one scene where 3 young kids and 2 frenzied dogs running in a closed area, neither knowing who is chasing who!

I and my 2nd bro went inside our house successfully. And finally our big bro chased away the dogs by opening the compound gate. My big bro used to say, that if my second brother had not started to run in the first place, the entire task getting the clothes would have gone smoothly.

We always make fun of our second bro recollecting this particular incident. It still makes us laugh like anything. Gone are the times...